Anyone mount their portable GPS inside the cubby? I've searched, I can't seem to find any pics of portable GPS (garmin nuvi,tomtom) mounted in the cubby. Please post, thanks in advance.

 

i read that the garmin 660 fits in the cubby but havent seen any pics.

+1 on pics

 

Here's my Xterra's Garmin nuvi 660 sitting in front of my Farenheit screen. My '05 cubical has been replaced with an '03 one but they're more or less the same size. With the Garmin's SiFR receiver I'd guess that the antenna would work just fine inside that highly plastic area of the dash but would suffer a bit from not having a perfect view of the sky. The door closed fine even with the DVD screen taking up half the cubical. The two speakers of the Garmin fire backwards but there is enough of a rebate on the shape of the back that the sound ought to work fine. Better yet would be to wire the thing into your stereo system and use the MP3 and Bluetooth phone abilities of the nuvi.

 

Nice. I knew it would fit.

 

I dont have any pics at work, but I have the Lowrance Iway 350c in there and hooked up to my headunit to play mp3's and give directions over the stereo. If you do get a unit to fit in the cubby, make sure it has an external antenna jack, because you will need it. I had to get a repeater since the 350c didnt have an antenna jack.

 

+1. I have the external antenna hooked up on my Garmin StreetPilot 2720.

 

Anyone know if the Nuvi 660 has one of these external antenna jacks?


And can i get any stereo shop to hard wire the 660 to the stereo system to get constant power and have the directions come through the speakers?

 

I don't think you'd want it coming through your speakers.

 

Your first question: “Anyone know if the Nuvi 660 has one of these external antenna jacks?”
______________________________________________
Yes, you can wire an external antennae jack to the Nuvi 660. The external antenna uses a MCX connector and is available directly from Garmin. Go to http://shop.garmin.com/accessory.jsp...0%2D10052%2D05
to see this accessory.

I mounted my external antenna on the rear strut bar in my Z coupe, ran the wire down and through the transmission tunnel and up to the upper/forward cubby where I mounted the GPS unit. This configuration works great and better than using the GPS’s built-in antennae. Acquisition times are faster using a remote antenna mounted on the rear strut since you always have a good satellite view through the rear hatch-window of the coupe.

I also hard-wired the GPS to a power supply on a fused circuit from the car’s ignition. It’s important to go through the car’s ignition switch. That way you won’t drain the battery if you forget to turn off the GPS when leaving the car. To run the wires to the upper/forward cubby space, drill a whole in the right side of the cubby (your right as you face the upper/forward cubby), install a grommet, and run the antenna wire and the power source through the hole to the GPS. That makes for a neat and clean install.

Not to confuse you or divert someone else’s thread, but here are some other ideas:

Read the Farenheit thread (author Paul350Z) to see how you can easily install a 7” monitor into the upper/forward cubby space. You could do this and then install the new Garmin GVN 52 black-box hide-away navigation unit in a rear cubby space of your Z. Go here for information about the Garmin GVN 52:
http://www.garmin.com/products/gvn52/

Note: This unit (the Garmin GVN 52) does not support touch screen functions. But, “The Tech” (another member on this Forum) is taking this to another level by working on a touch-screen solution using a Kenwood LZ-702W Touch-Screen Monitor with a Kenwood KNA-G510 Navigation Unit (same as the Garmin GVN 52 navigation unit except the Kenwood KNA-G510 supports touch-screen function). When “The Tech” gets this done with Kenwood components, you would get all of the great Garmin interface plus touch-screen functions.

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Your second question: “And can i get any stereo shop to hard wire the 660 to the stereo system to get constant power and have the directions come through the speakers?”
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The answer is YES. But there is a caveat. Garmin’s instruction is: “With nuvi 660's wireless FM transmitter you can hear audio, including voice prompts, MP3s and audio books, through your vehicle's stereo.” That means you set an FM station to broadcast to your HU through the Garmin while the Garmin is set to primary broadcasting. I don’t think that is what you are asking for. I think you are asking if you can have your system doing its function and then mute and hear the Garmin’s voice street directions without the need to set the HU to a specific FM frequency. So, that configuration isn’t going to work as you ask.

The Garmin also has its own speaker that you can run independently of your HU to give you audible voice directions. The problem here is that the two units (the Garmin and your car’s HU will be competing in volume while they play/speak at the same time). That is probably not what you want either.

I have not done this and therefore do not know if it is workable, but I would think a good shop could give you what you want by connecting the Garmin to the AUX of your HU so that you hear your entertainment system but have it interrupted by the Garmin voice instructions. Anyone else know more about this?


BTW: Now there are two new Nuvi products from Garmin. In addition to the Nuvi 660, there is a Nuvi 670 and a Nuvi 680. Yikes (already!?)

--Spike

 

Thanks Spike! That is some great info! Exactly what i wanted to know!

 

after much debating i decided to go with the garmin nuvi 350 instead of the garmin based kna-g510. the main reason was the portability, i can take it along when i drive my truck. there also seems to be more features in the nuvi. the signal strength is not an issue, its usually at full bars in the cubby. i just have to hardwire it. overall, i highly recommend it.

 

That makes a lot of sense. You save big by using one unit in two vehicles, and now you can carry it with you when you are on foot. If you take the truck off-road, it’s handy to mark your location, go hike, hunt, or whatever, and then find the truck in the dark. Same goes when you are in a strange city or location with the Z, leave the car but take the GPS, and find your way back.

Another advantage to this configuration is putting the GPS screen in the upper/forward cubby. My feeling is that is where your GPS screen should be because it is closer to the line of sight from the driver’s eyes to road. It is certainly better than looking a little down to the double DIN location. The single DIN navigation units with flip-up screens get the sight line pretty good as well.

I like the 7” screen (bigger and easier to read quickly), and want this in the upper/forward cubby for the reasons I mention above. The problem is fitting any of the available monitors with touch-screen function in this location (the Z’s upper/forward cubby). The touch-screen monitors all have controls along the bottom so you would probably need to either make a custom bottom piece to fit the cubby, or do some very careful work with a dremel along with some custom trim pieces. I have seen an Alpine 6.5” touch-screen mounted in the upper/forward cubby. It was OK, but not as neat an install as Paul did with the Farenheit.

…Any particular reason you went with the Nuvi 350 instead of the 660? --Spike

 

I am still debating on whether I want to continue with my Kenwood project or just say screw it and put in the Nuvi 660.

 

Yeah… I’m beginning to think the same way (about giving up on my plan to install a Kenwood LZ-702W Touch-Screen Monitor in the upper/cubby position). It is very close to the dimensions of the Farenheit T-7000MHR Monitor (that Paul showed us how to fit perfectly), but the Kenwood LZ-702W Touch-Screen Monitor has its row of control buttons along the bottom edge of the monitor. Another problem is the bezel on the Kenwood since it is “decorative” and protrudes a little far on the top and sides, and even more on the bottom. The size is about right, but how to deal with that projecting bezel (especially on the bottom of the monitor)? And then there is the problem with access to the lower row of control buttons on the Kenwood LZ-702W Touch-Screen Monitor. I just received e-mail from Kenwood USA Support, and they tell me I cannot run the Kenwood LZ-702W Touch-Screen / KNA-G510 Navigation Unit combination with a remote, so that means I must have access to the buttons along the bottom of the LZ-702W Monitor. So installing this setup in the Z requires custom dremel-cutting and acrylic work on the bottom of the Z’ upper/forward cubby. And after doing that, the top and sides may not look quite right.

There is another option for installing a touch-screen monitor/navigation combination using the upper/forward cubby in the Z. You can install the Alpine TME-M770S Touch-Screen Monitor in the upper/forward cubby space and drive this with the Alpine NVE-N872A Navigation Unit. I had the opportunity to see the Alpine TME-M770S Touch-Screen Monitor installed in the forward/upper cubby space, and it fits fairly well since it is a 6.5” screen (instead of a 7”). The Alpine monitor does require some minor surgery on the lower floor of the cubby since it also has its control buttons and IR sensor on the bottom of the unit. The Alpine comes with an IR remote, so you really only need to expose the monitor’s IR window to run the unit (unlike the Kenwood LZ-702W Touch-Screen Monitor which does not support an IR remote, or at least that is what Kenwood Support just told me in an e-mail). And with this said, the Alpine doesn’t fit exactly (and no where near the great install Paul did with the Farenheit). I also have issues with the Alpine NVE-N872A Navigation Unit. It’s a great piece of equipment, but not what I want for several reasons.

Here are the dimensions for the monitors I mention in this post:

Farenheit T-7000MHR Monitor (177.8x127x22.8)
Kenwood LZ-702W Touch-Screen Monitor (177x121.5x34)
Alpine TME-M770S Touch-Screen Monitor (161x109x28.5)

I didn’t keep the Nuvi 660. That was not because any problem with the Nuvi 660 (It’s a great unit, and best of all it has Garmin’s great interface.) I just wanted to have a 7” navigation screen.

--Spike

 

It would be nice if Garmin made something larger than the Nuvi but smaller than their StreetPilot 7200/7500 which is too big for the cubby.

 

Well I was just checking out dimensions and I came up with something interesting.

The Nuvi 660 is 4.9 x 2.9 x 0.9
The Street Pilot 2720 (which I am currently using) is 5.6 x 3.2 x 2.0
The Street Pilot 7500 is 7.5 x 4.5 x 2.2
The Farenheit is 8 x 5.5 x 1.5
The Kenwood is 6.97 x 4.78 x 1.34

From this info, it looks to me that any of the units should work with the stock cubby since the Farenheit is larger than all the others. Now maybe Paul can shed some more detailed light on this, since I know he had to do a bit of modification (I think) to the Farenheit screen to make it fit. I'd think that given the above sizes, any of the units will fit fine with the cubby. I could be wrong though. Personally, I was trying to do as little modification (if any) to the cubby to make something fit. I would rather not do any and find a unit that will fit in the cubby without pulling the dash out.

 

One more thing while I'm browsing the internet. While the Farenheit is a perfect fit, it has no touch screen capabilities. I did find the Xenarc 700TS/700TSV is a touch screen and is 7.75 x 4.75 x 1.38 which still would fit according to the Farenheit reference size.

 

Oh oh… you may not understand this correctly (not flaming, just offering additional information for more discussion). If I misinterpreted your message, please correct me (and forgive me).

Paul used a 2003 upper/forward cubby box to do his “perfect-install-fit” of a Farenheit T-7000MHR. He removed the “rear box” of the 2003 forward/upper cubby, and placed the monitor in the position that this rear box previously occupied. You can see his great pictures and installation instruction on his Farenheit thread. He did not do any modification to the Farenheit monitor to make it fit (other than not using the headrest shroud… you just pop the monitor out of this shroud). Paul shows how the Farenheit T-7000MHR drops into the 2003 cubby easily and with no modification whatsoever for a perfect fit. Other examples of monitors that fit perfectly (using Paul’s great instructions) are: Farenheit T-7001MHR and Power Acoustik PT-700MHR.

If you want to do what Paul did, you need the 2003 cubby and use a screen that fits. The important point is when installing a 6.5” to 7” monitor, you must mount the screen behind the upper/forward cubby. I tried doing this with the Kenwood LZ-702W Touch-Screen Monitor, but that requires some custom fitting (to make it look OEM, and it still doesn’t work quite right). Same goes for the Alpine TME-M770S Touch-screen Monitor. You can fit these monitors, but they require some custom dremel-work and acrylic-adds to make them work and look right (supporting access to the lower row of function-buttons).

The other option is to do nothing to the forward/cubby space and install a Garmin Nuvi (or whatever… Megellan, TomTom. etc.) In this case you simply run a hard-wired power line from a fused lead off an ignition power-line to your GPS power source, an external antenna lead (optional), and install the device inside the forward/upper cubby.

I sure don’t want this discussion to die here. In fact I would really like to accomplish a touch-screen navigation system that occupies the upper/forward cubby space of the Z. I just need to figure out how to do this.

Best wishes, --Spike

 

Right, the Farenheit does not support touch-screen functions. The Xenarc 700TS/700TSV is a touch-screen monitor, but it needs a UBS connection (which is not available with the popular hide-away car navigation units from Alpine, Kenwood, and Garmin.) To run the The Xenarc 700TS/700TSV as a touch-screen monitor, you would need to connect this to a car-pc.

--Spike

 

I looked at Paul's write-up again this morning. It had been a while since I saw it. I did see that it was a simple and easy install. I did already know that he removed the rear part to install the screen. In my second to last post above, I was showing the different size screens out there in a Garmin based standalone unit to compare with the Farenheit unit. As you can see, it seems that the Street Pilot 7200/7500 should be able to fit in the same way as the Farenheit one does and you don't need to worry about getting two different units to do navigation. This is what I like a lot. If I wanted to, I could already hook the G510 to my existing DDX-8017, but I wanted to be able to have navi separate from video or music, etc. The other thing that is great about a standalone Garmin unit is that there aren't tons of wires or different boxes that need install.

I'm not exactly sure what you're trying to accomplish with your install Spike, but me doing the Kenwood route was for navi only, that's why when you pointed out the fact that the LZ-702W wouldn't fit and have the controls accessible to it, that I started thinking about another route.